Debris ‘almost certainly’ from Malaysian Airlines MH370

A piece of aircraft debris found on the coast of Mozambique Photo courtesy: AFP

Australia’s transport minister has said debris found off the coast off Mozambique “almost certainly” comes from the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

In a statement yesterday, Darren Chester said analysis by Malaysian investigation teams had concluded that the pieces of debris found were consistent with panels from the plane that went missing in March 2014.

“The analysis has concluded the debris is almost certainly from MH370,” Chester said.

“That such debris has been found on the east coast of Africa is consistent with drift modelling performed by CSIRO [an Australian science agency] and further affirms our search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean.”

Chester said that the search for the missing plane will continue. “There are 25,000 square kilometres of the underwater search area still to be searched. We are focused on completing this task and remain hopeful the aircraft will be found.”

The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER plane vanished from radar screens shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing, early on March 8, 2014, becoming one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

Investigators believe the plane, with 239 passengers and crew on board, was flown thousands of kilometres off course before crashing into the ocean off Australia.

Wreckage and impact information are being considered based on the discovery of a wing part, known as a flaperon, in July last year, investigators said.

The flaperon, washed up on Reunion, an island off Madagascar, had been the only confirmed piece of wreckage from the aircraft to be found up until yesterday.

Earlier this month, on the two-year anniversary of the flight, international investigators said they were yet to arrive at a conclusion over what happened to the jet. — AFP